University Park tree works

The University has devised a long-term strategy for the enhancement of the current stock of existing trees across the University Park Campus. The long-term goal is to establish an Arboretum resource of regional and national value for the benefit of both students and visitors to the campus.

The University has a well established reputation for creating attractive campuses. The recent investment in both Jubilee and Sutton Bonington campuses along with the recent additions of the Trent Parterre overlooking the Highfields Park lake, the new Theatre Gardens and the forthcoming Portland Hill cascades project continues to reflect their ongoing investment in landscape and green infrastructure across their estate. The University has now developed a strategy for the enhancement of their extensive tree collection that defines much of the University Park Campus.

Trees have always been an integral part of the landscape across the University Park Campus. It has benefited from planned tree planting that dates back to its origins in the 12th Century as the Lenton Priory estate and in the 19th century tree planting for the then private villas found across the site. This rich heritage comes with a great responsibility to manage, maintain and enhance the campus and the plans demonstrate our commitment to further enhance the campus by establishing an arboretum resource of regional and national value for the benefit of both students, staff and visitors to the campus.

The first phase of our planned works will see the removal of a number of mature trees in poor health or at the end of their natural lifespan around the north west of the campus and along the edge of Beeston Lane. By doing this it will provide the opportunity for the planting of new trees to extend their longevity of the remaining trees and introduce new collection of trees. The removal of approximately 50 trees will be matched by the replacement planting of around 80 large specimen trees. These have been selected to offer seasonal and visual interest to users of the campus and will include an avenue of Lime trees to mark the Universities 21 AGM and Annual Presidential Meeting to be hosted by the University in May 2017. Other trees include Redwoods, Persian Ironwoods and less common species such as the Japanese Zelkova tree with its attractive smooth grey bark naturally flaking to reveal beautiful orange patches.

2 Comments

This sounds like a good initiative, but has any consideration been given to the existing arboretum on the Sutton Bonington campus?

March 14th, 2017 at 9:32 am

Paula Akpan

Hi Sarah, thanks for your question. The vision of the arboretum, is to extend it over time to other sites. So going forward, we will need to consider how the arboretum strategy is applied into Sutton Bonington, especially as it already has an arboretum. It will depend on availability of resources. We are developing some potential interesting work at SB, in partnership with the Woodland Trust. If you have any more questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Jamie Whitehouse, a grounds manager at The University of Nottingham at jamie.whitehouse@nottingham.ac.uk who will be more than happy to help. Thanks, Paula